Germany/South Africa, 74 minutes – The 2010 South African World Cup tournament is the distant backdrop for “Meanwhile In Mamelodi” a documentary by German Benjamin Kahlmeyer. The Mtsweni family live in Maleodi, a township near Pretoria. “My life is a treadmill, 24/7″ father Steven says with a smile: the small store he runs demands his time, his wife has a mental illness, his charming son somehow has a plastic bead jammed into his ear, and his willowy daughter is negotiating adolescence. She’s athletic, and a sports career may her best chance — certainly better than getting pregnant too early or the other risks of unprotected sex. Local vendors, like him, are restricted to a three-block perimeter from the stadium. In South Africa, this isn’t an opportunity lost as much as one never offered.

Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

No soccer glory clichés here, the more interesting action is on the fan’s faces. During the tedious final between Span and Netherlands, Steven’s son says “how long will this go on?” — from the mouths of babes, indeed. Early on, when the Bafana Bafana score the first goal of the tournament, the smiles cannot be stopped, despite that blasted vuvuzela drone.

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Israel/USA/Germany, 101 minutes – The Law in These Parts (Shilton Ha Chok) examines the concept of rule of law during the now 45 year old “temporary” occupation of Gaza and the territories by the Israeli forces. Through interview with former military judges and attorneys — and some fantastic dramatic period footage — filmmaker Ra’anan Alexandrowicz maps the application and interpretation of law by a military whose job is to protect Israeli interests and a court system that must adjudicate fairly over a population that considers them the enemy. The Supreme Court of Israel was unique in that it allowed for direct petition by the Palestinians, but has the system been a complicit and convenient rubber stamp in service primarily to the occupation? Alexandreoxicz doesn’t hide the formal filmmaking process of his staged interviews — visible crew members, deactivated greenscreen in the background, and VO reminders of film’s inherent constructed nature are like a judge’s opinion or selected memories of witness’ testimony. Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Documentary prize.

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Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

France, 90 minutes – Michele Bras has built his restaurant brand into a three Michelen star powerhouse, but he’s about to retire and turn the pots and pans over to his son, Sébastien. Everyone is wondering, sometimes even out loud, whether ‘Séba’ will keep the Bras enterprises on top. Dad is master at plating unique flavor combinations with a painterly touch, and Sébastien’s own inspiration is most evident when he creates a complex, architecturally intriguing dessert. Do the flavors meld well? Will father step back with a proud nod or insist that it needs a pinch of this (or that) to avoid disaster? The two dramatic Bras eateries — one in the French mountains, one in Toya Japan — are destination restaurants, and the movie is a visual treat for landscape alone. This is sometimes a process film, which can be appetizing, but it’s most satisfying as a family drama. Sébastien has a young son who gets togged out in let’s-play-chef attire, just like dad was, and just like grandfather did. I’d like to visit the Bras clan when this next generation is of legal cooking age.

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USA/Denmark, 100 minutes – Director Lauren Greenfield had the good luck to start filming timeshare magnate David Siegel, his wife Jackie and their family in 2008, when business was good and the Siegels were ready to build a 90,000 square foot house (to be christened “Versailles”) in Orlando, Florida (their 26,000 foot home was just getting too cramped, you see). But then a little thing called the Global Financial Crisis happened, and even these ultra one-percenters felt the brunt in their own way. They are by no means poor, but the crisis which decimated so many families with underwater mortgages also hits the Siegels. This film follows their arc from fabulously wealthy to merely rich. Easy targets? Maybe, but you will probably be surprised.

(This has completed its run at the festival, but will be released later this summer to wider distribution.)

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Cambodia, 96 minutes – Cambodia enjoyed a flourishing film industry from 1960 until 1975, when the Khmer Rouge regime decimated the population and the culture, killing an estimated 1.7 million people. Few of the roughly 400 films survived, but many older citizens can still recall details about the popular pictures, the glamorous personalities, the fantastic plots, the poppy soundtracks. Filmmaker Davy Chou’s documentary visits with several surviving former industry pros and sites of long-gone studios, film locations and Phnom Penh theaters: The city had 30 in its heyday. Now repurposed as karaoke lounges or, in one case, a dank shelter for 179 households, today they tell a tragic tale of film – and human – history.

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Courtesy of San Francisco Film Society.

USA/United Arab Emirates, 109 min – When filmmaker Caveh Zahedi is asked to participate in the Sharjah Bienniale, he asks if there are any restrictions on what he can produce. “No, none at all … Well, now that you mention it, don’t make fun of the Sheikh or government policies.” Naturally, this restricted zone is exactly where Zahedi the provocateur must go, and he hauls a crew and his family to Sharjah to start filming … something. Maybe he’ll stage a kidnapping action film, maybe toy with musical sequences. While negotiating with the local cultural art establishment and local guest workers he wants to use in his movie, he soon learns that “In a place that has no freedom of speech you cannot say there is no freedom of speech.”